Kay Abeyta Western and Wildlife Art

Painted buffalo skull.

2010-03-13T20:11:00.000-08:00

My neighbor, friend, irrigator, helper asked me if I would paint a white buffalo on his buffalo skull about 2 years ago. Well I finally got it done. Painting on skulls is definitely a different surface.

After talking to other artists who paint on skulls, I prepared the skull by first making sure the skull was clean and then sprayed it with a clear acrylic spray paint. After that dried, I used acrylic gesso on the forehead where the major painting was going to be.

I decided to keep it pretty simple, and just paint a bull portrait. I drew the portrait on and then kept the background in sky blue and then winged it for the color of the buffalo as I have never seen a white buffalo. I have seen many pictures, only to find out that they crossed buffalo with white domestic cows so they were not true color of a white purebred buffalo.

I also found out that most buffalo born white turn back to the browns of normal buffalo with age. So I kept the head dark for contrast and used lighter color for the hump and back.

Big Horn sheep painting

2010-03-05T17:23:00.000-08:00

A week or so ago, my friend from Dubois, Wyoming, Gary Keimig, who is also a western and wildlife artist, challenged some of his blog followers to paint a portrait of one of the young Whiskey Mountain Big Horn rams he had taken a picture of on one of his and his wife's (Vickie) jaunts out in the country side around the Dubois area to cure a little cabin fever. Gary often displays his photos on his blogs and he is a pretty good photographer.

Anyways, I took him up on his challenge and I also thought it would be fun to post the whole thing on my blog - from start to finish.

Start to Finish Big Horn Ram painting.

2010-03-05T17:21:00.000-08:00

The photo of Gary's that I was using is 7" X 7" or thereabouts. I didn't have a square canvas and I didn't want to stretch my own this time, but I did have an old 18 X 14 canvas that I had somewhat painted out. So I decided to use it and use the middle 14 inches for the portrait. Word of warning here, most of the background was pretty dark so it can be kinda hard when first starting to get the right colors and values going. It is much easier to use a fresh canvas but I save my old paintings that I don't think are worth saving and paint over them.

I used a white pastel pencil and lightly penciled in the grid for guidelines. Some artists use tracing paper to do this, I like to work directly on the canvas. Using the grid gives you guidelines and makes the drawing go faster. A lot of the times I will just starting drawing with my paint.

Blocking in

2010-03-05T17:19:00.000-08:00

I begin my blocking in with background changes first. That gives me a better view of what my ram is going to look like and if I have him drawn correctly. Besides I want the ram in front of the background so I work from back to front. My background is going to be real impressionistic as the ram is my focal point.

I don't like the background yet, but it will do until I get the ram blocked in more, I put my darkest darks in and use a middle tone for the underhair of the ram.

I just roughly get him blocked in. But I like the placement so far.

The dark corner is my finger over my camera lens!

Painting the eye

2010-03-05T17:17:00.000-08:00

I got him coming around pretty well. I also have changed the background to just about where I will leave it. I use the colors of the background of the photo so I have the natural colors (pretty much) of his habitat.

I also paint the eye now. I use to wait until last to paint the eyes in, but now I do it first before I start really finishing the animal. I have found that when I paint the eye first, I get the character of the animal better.

90 % Done

2010-03-05T17:16:00.000-08:00

I have him going pretty good at this point. I have changed the background a little more, not much but it is working better for me now.

I have his horns going about right, but at this point I have so much wet paint that I am beginning to lose what I have and making mud. So it is time to let it tack up a little.

I will take it to an easel in the living room for a while too.
I do that so I can see it in normal living light and also I can look at it now and again and see where I need to improve or change.

Just a little more tweaking.

2010-03-05T17:15:00.000-08:00

I am thinking he is pretty much finished. But after looking at him in the living room, I can see I need to change some things.

I have a straight line going down his shoulder from the tip of his horn, need to adjust that. Also, minor changes to his face. Shorten his muzzle up a tad, adjust the color values on his face. Also I see two parallell lines just under his horn in the background, I will take them out.

I am also going to adjust the background a little too. He's coming along.

Whiskey Mountain Big Horn Ram

2010-03-05T17:00:00.000-08:00

I am calling him finished.

I was going to title this painting "Almost Legal" because I thought a ram had to be 3/4 curl before it could be harvested. I have checked the Wyoming Hunting Regulations and it says "any ram". So I titiled it "Whiskey Mountain Big Horn Ram".

2010-02-18T13:07:00.000-08:00

Little poem I wrote for my painting "Chicken Soup on the Run"

Beautiful and colorful he was,

so proudly he did crow,

Cock of the walk he did strut,

surveying his kingdom for all to see,

Attila, the Han he thought he was,

Which became his Waterloo.

He attacked his mistress one fine day,

Thinking he was king of the domain.

And that is when he became

Chicken Soup on the Run.

Pals share.

2010-02-18T12:55:00.000-08:00

The profile picture is an oil painting I did 2008, it is of my son when he was 19 months old and his puppy. Storm is feeding his puppy Purina Hi-Protein dog food from his pocket. He was giving one to the pup and then eating one. Guess that is why he grew so big. Actually, Storm weighted in at 9 pounds 9 oz. at birth, he always looked older than he was. He and his pup were the best of buddies.

Good news! I have been juried in as Associate Member of Oil Painters of America! I have following this organization for years and have been thinking about trying for this for a couple of years and this year was the year. I missed the deadline for their national competition, but am looking forward to their Western Regional show and trying for it. So my motivator got its jump!!!

My motivatior needs a jump start.

2009-08-15T15:07:00.000-07:00

One of the things I have discovered as I get older is that time goes by faster. Where it goes, I have no idea! But goes it does.

Sometimes I feel like this rooster I painted a while back. I call it Chicken Soup on the Run!

There is a story behind that title. This rooster belonged to a friend and he got where he was attacking her when she was feeding the chickens, so he became Chicken Soup!

Painting was put on the back burner for a while. The month of July was filled with my only granddaughter's visit. She and her mom and her step-family have moved to Missouri since February so I don't get to see her as often as I once did. Now when she is here, it is her time.

She and I spent 3 days in the Dubois Wyoming country for a fishing trip since I had promised I would take her fishing this summer when she was here. It was her first time going since she received her new fishing rod last Christmas.

The first day out we stopped on a little creek by the Pelham Lake road (as many times as I have been in that country, I can never remember the names of creeks, etc. I just know where they are at!). I had just helped her get her line in the creek and turned to pick mine up and she said, "I think I have a fish." I told her to reel in and see. She did and she caught her first fish! A little 5 inch Brookie that she got on the bank just as it flipped off the hook and back into the creek. She was pretty excited - she had caught a fish! Didn't matter that it flipped off - it was too small anyways.

The second day we went up Warm Springs way via Union Pass road. Holy cow, is that area built up. Cabins and houses and three businesses all in that small area. Isn't like the days when I cowboyed for HE Ranch. So instead of trying our luck on the Warm Springs there, I took Sable around on the Sheridan Creek side, where we tried a couple of creeks with no success and then stopped on the Upper Warm Springs (Impressed! I read the sign!) and she no more than got her line in and caught another fish. This one was about 8 inch Brown. She kept that one.

The third day we stopped at the Silver Sage Gallery for a bit after breakfast to visit my dear friends and owners of the gallery, Tammy and Tom Lucas and Vickie and Gary Keimig . Vickie was out of town so missed visiting with her. Sable and I was telling our fish stories and Gary told Sable to go try by his house just on the edge of town. Said there were some good holes right there and at the bridge. The Wind River is right at the edge of his and Vickie's backyard. So Sable and I went there and she threw her line in a couple of times and then the pole bent into a U! I helped her reel it in and just as we got this whopper of fish on the bank, her line broke. But it was far enough away from the edge that we got hold of it before it could flip back in.

Sable with Tammy Lucas, Gary Keimig and Tom Lucas and her 17 inch Brown! And Lucas' buddy, Tinker - who is more interested in the fish can then any thing else at the moment.

What a catch! And what a excited little gal! She had to take it to the gallery and show Gary the fish she caught at his bridge.

This morning I woke up to a beautiful rainy day. It really rained most of the night and all morning today. Have standing water everywhere. God did my irrigation for me!! Thank you, Thank you! Since have the second cutting of hay to do and was thinking I was going to have to do one more go on it when the rain came. I think it was enough to get me through to the haying. Hope it drowned the dang grasshoppers!

Summer is rushing by.

2008-07-12T12:40:00.000-07:00

This painting, "Mama's Roses" is my entry to the October art show in Lander, Wyoming, Heart of the West. It is oil, 24" X 12".

My mother beaded the medallion for me about 1984. It is one of her last works. She began beading as a young girl.

When she was beading the mocassins, which are her personal pair, she was beading with Anita Large, a Shoshone matriarch of the Wind River Reservation and a very dear friend of hers. Anita lived in Crowheart on the old JK Ranch and Mom lived in Dubois on the LU Ranch. When Anita saw that Mom was beading the roses with the stems toward the toes, she told Mom, "Valeria, you are beading your roses upside down. They should be so when you look down at your feet they are positioned so you can see them right side up." Mom told Anita, "I want people to see me coming, not leaving." Anita got such a kick out of that.

So that is why it is called "Mama's Roses". She loved red rose.

I don't know where the time is flying, but it seems the summer is flying by and I have so much to do yet.

Saturday Riverton Quick Draw

2008-02-04T17:13:00.000-08:00

I decided for the annual Quick Draw that the Riverton Artists Guild during the Wild West Carnival sponsors for their major fundraiser to paint with my pastels. I picked a Hawaiian rooster that my niece had photographed while she was visiting her son in Hawaii that is stationed there with the Navy. He is a very colorful and proud rooster, just the kind of subject that makes for good paintings. At the Quick Draw, artists are given 1 hour to complete the painting with 15 minutes to sign and frame it. This year there were 29 artists that participated.
We had a great crowd of spectators and bidders. It is one of the year's most looked forward to evenings in our area, it gives everyone a break from the winter's blues. I apologize for the images flaws. I forgot to take my picture of the finished piece before I put it in the frame and didn't have time to take it out to photograph it. Not only did my painting, "Cock of the Rock" sell well but I was commissioned to do two paintings as well! It was a really fun night.

Cock of the Walk Original Oil

2008-01-27T19:38:00.000-08:00

Cock of the Walk is a painting of this colorful, proud rooster of a friend. Unfortunately for the rooster, he got too cocky and became chicken stew.

January 26, 2008

2008-01-27T19:30:00.000-08:00

First times are always the hardest to get going. I plan on this blog to keep everyone updated on my paintings and how I start to finish a painting. It may not be daily, so check back every week or so.